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New Scientist Live

Crow reveals talent for technology

The remarkable toolmaking talent of a New Caledonian crow called Betty has challenged the chimpanzee’s reputation as the most proficient toolmaker in the animal world.

The bird, one of two kept at Oxford University’s zoology field station, fashioned a hook from an ordinary piece of wire – something even a chimp cannot manage.

Betty uses a hook she fashioned from a piece of wire (Photo&colon; Science)

This species of crow are remarkably adept at both using and making tools. “It’s incredibly impressive for something with such a small brain,” says Jackie Chappell, one of the scientists studying the birds’ behaviour.

In their home on the Pacific archipelago of New Caledonia, the crows make and use a range of tools including hooks, which they use to extract prey from cracks and crevices. But Betty has now shown that she can design and manufacture a tool from materials with which she has no previous experience. This is unheard of in any other animals, including chimps, say the researchers.

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Completely spontaneous

Betty’s skills came to light when the two birds were given a choice between a straight wire and a hook to extract a bucket of food from the bottom of a plastic tube. When the male bird made off with the hook, the female bent the tip of the straight wire to make a replacement.

“It was completely spontaneous behaviour,” says Alex Kacelnik, another member of the Oxford team.

Astonished, the team checked to see that it was not a fluke by setting both crows a new challenge. Again, they had to retrieve the bucket of food but this time the team provided only straight wires. In nine out of 10 trials, Betty bent the wire and pulled up the bucket.

To bend the wire, she sometimes stuck one end into a sticky piece of tape wrapped around the bottom of the tube well or held it in her feet, then pulled the tip with her beak.

Cognitive ability

Wild crows make hooks from twigs and leaves and do not have access to materials that bend and retain their shape like wire. The captive bird’s ability to make the right tool for the job from unfamiliar materials and using quite different manufacturing methods suggests some understanding of the properties of the material and what might be achieved with a hook.

The finding raises many questions about how “brainy” these crows are and how their toolmaking abilities evolved. “I don’t believe crows have a greater general intelligence than apes but it appears that in this very specific area of cognitive ability crows seem to have an advantage,” says Kacelnik.

For much more on the toolmaking crows of New Caledonia read the Look! No hands feature in the 17 August issue of New Scientist print edition.